Nobody said this was easy. Making money in the stock market is dependant on occasionally losing some. This is the iron law of finance.

Describing seemingly abnormal market behaviour as normal is a difficult job. Understanding this concept is the key to success.

Just like a roller coaster, the only market participants who get injured are those who jump off. In market speak, this means selling stocks during market corrections with no rules-based plan to jump back in.

My colleague, Ben Carlson crunched some numbers and came up with this amazing data.

In a nutshell, five years after horrendous quarters, stoic investors are rewarded – and then some.

To the tune of a 91.3% return. This doesn’t include any additional savings on your part.

These numbers, like everything else in the markets, aren’t guaranteed. All investors can do is make high probability bets. This falls under that category.

Data won’t make short-term market madness less painful. It will protect you from doing something really stupid.

The stock market doesn’t care about Christmas Eve or your impending retirement. It is an unfeeling beast.

Taming its primal instincts requires time and data.

Having a rules-based process based on evidence, not emotion is crucial.

The temporary “white space” as our Director of Research Michael Batnick refers to seems like a relentless form of waterboarding when experienced in real time.

No one cares about the long-term upward trend when the market loses 4,000 points in a month.

If you don’t have a plan, now is the time to make one.

All things in the universe revert to entropy. Things that can go wrong – will.

Sh*t happens, just don’t let it happen to you.

We can’t stop the market from falling but we can help you understand why it sometimes does.